Chapter 35: Setting the Tone
When the initial shock of seeing a blade a couple of inches from his head faded, Axel screamed at Zayn as he ran out the door:
"Where the hell do you think you’re going?!"
’What the hell...?’
’What in the absolute hell?!’
’D-did he betray us?!’
’Why?!’
’That bastard!’
’That’s why Ryon attacked him, isn’t it?! Zayn threw the damned pebble!’
It was too late. Zayn, the traitor, was gone. He’d left Axel alone with the Goblin King.
Axel wanted to curse Zayn and take his revenge, but he could only do that if he lived.
There was a single silver lining to Axel’s hopeless situation: The Goblin King was dying. One after another, its wounds returned, and green blood poured from its body.
The King then threw Ryon’s corpse at Axel with a haggard scream:
"KKRRRAAAGGHH"
Axel could’ve dodged, but instead, he caught Ryon’s mangled body and set him down gently.
Then he slowly walked toward the Goblin King, ignoring the seething pain in his leg. On the outside, he must have looked calm.
He was anything but.
’That message... That damned message in my arm! I should have never ignored it!’
’The answer was so obvious! And yet! And yet—’
With that thought, Axel charged at the King like a rabid beast, releasing a war cry:
"Be-hellaaaahhhh!"
The goblin responded with a pain-filled screech of its own.
"KRAAGHhh!"
When Axel came within range, the goblin swung its club downward at him.
Knowing the power the beast was capable, he rolled aside to dodge the attack.
The goblin used so much force that it lost its balance and fell face-first to the ground.
Axel sprang up and lunged at the fallen creature, his sword poised to strike. But just as he brought his blade down, the goblin flung a desperate backhand at him, forcing Axel to jump back and narrowly avoid the wild blow.
The force of the goblin’s flailing flipped it onto its back, leaving it vulnerable.
Axel stood still for a moment, watching.
The Goblin King didn’t rise — it merely propped itself into a sitting position. It seemed unable to move.
Taking advantage of the lull, Axel scanned the battlefield. That was when he noticed it — Ryon’s sword.
Axel walked over and stood beside it. Still, the Goblin King didn’t move. It sat there, waiting.
He could have waited for the creature to bleed out. But that would cost time — time the others didn’t have. If he stalled, those holding the horde at bay would surely perish. Steeling his resolve, Axel nudged Ryon’s sword with his foot, slowly kicking it toward the crippled goblin. He kept himself just out of its reach, carefully lining up the blade.
The goblin didn’t even attempt to crawl closer.
Channeling most of his remaining Aether into his right leg, Axel kicked the sword as hard as he could. The blade rocketed forward in a straight path. The goblin frantically raised its arm to defend itself, blocking its own vision in the process.
The sword struck with lucky, brutal precision, tore through the goblin’s hand and gouged out one of its eyes.
Axel seized the moment and dashed forward. The creature flailed blindly with its remaining arm. He leapt over the clumsy swing, using the goblin’s arm like a springboard to launch himself forward, his sword aimed at its skull — ready to end it.
Or that had been the plan, at least.
But as he leapt through the air, the vile goblin snapped its jaws open and tried to bite him, a move Axel hadn’t anticipated now that its cheek wound had returned.
Forced to react, Axel veered his attack off course and retreated. In his scramble, his sword slipped from his grip and landed near the goblin. Worse, the pain from his wounds finally caught up to him.
With the adrenaline draining from his system, Axel collapsed, immobilized.
The heinous goblin still didn’t pursue; it didn’t grab his weapon. But it was still alive.
And so, they stared at each other, two dying foes locked in a silent stalemate.
Axel slowly rolled onto his back and stared up at the crack in the ceiling that led to the throne room above.
’Am I going to die despite having experience from the future? How pathetic can I be...’
...
’If only Zayn!’
...
’Never mind. There’s no use getting mad now. I don’t want the last look on my face to be anger. I owe it to all of the people I’ve ever called savior. Even my last one, the nameless one. Or perhaps my last one was Mikhail. Maybe Huang Gao...’
Axel let out a pained laugh and said:
"I don’t even follow my own logic, it seems."
Then Axel saw something.
’Huh...?’
Standing at the edge of the crack in the throne room was a one-armed man looking down at him, his entire body concealed beneath a dark cloak.
The man jumped down and landed beside the Goblin King. He picked up Axel’s sword and quietly shoved it through the goblin’s head. Then he turned, put a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence, ran up the rubble, and jumped through the crack he had come from.
Finally, the Goblin King slumped over, dead.
[Slay the Goblin King in the Castle] - (Completed)
(Will be summoned to the next area in: 10:00 minutes)
Axel felt a small amount of his vitality magically return.
"Ah..."
Axel let out a solemn scream:
"Araghhhhhhhhhhh..."
Now that Axel might live, his anger surged. He didn’t even question the identity of the strange man who’d just slain the Goblin King.
’If only that bastard Zayn hadn’t run. Hadn’t betrayed us! Why the hell did he do it?!’
Axel tried to stand but failed, his knees giving out. He crawled over to the King’s corpse and retrieved his sword from its skull. Using the sword as leverage, he managed to stand and began hobbling out of the hall, pursuing the traitor.
[Memory fragment recovered 1/10]
’What was that?’
’Was that a scene from my past life?’
’Was that how I died?’
A vision played in Axel’s head, one in which Lucas pierced his chest with a sword while a one-armed Zayn laughed nearby, holding a sinister sickle.
Axel felt every emotion from his previous death. He felt his desire to kill Zayn, along with his gratitude toward Lucas.
He looked at his arm, and through the splatters of blood, he spotted the "Z," which had become a scar on his skin.
Axel thought he now knew where the damned message had come from. He was sure of it. He didn’t know how, but it had come from his future self, telling him to kill someone — and that someone was Zayn.
A ton of other minor memories seeped into his head, but the most important was the scene of his death. That scene gave him two things:
A question and a grudge.
Axel wanted to know why Lucas had driven his sword through him and why Axel had felt thankful for it. And...
He remembered who he had to kill.
A faint clapping sound filled the empty halls with the kind of cadence only a villain from a children’s show could make.
Axel looked toward the entrance to the training hall and saw Zayn reappear, clapping his hands together.
Zayn, with a pained look on his face as if he’d been crying, said:
"I didn’t expect you to win. It just shows that my judgment of you was correct. Letting you live any longer would lead to complications in the future."
’Why did he come back now?!’
Axel used all his remaining strength to scream at Zayn:
"Traitorous Bastard!"
Zayn ignored Axel and spoke words that made no sense.
"We don’t have much time, so answer my questions truthfully and with haste."
"Shut up, bastard!"
The rage inside Axel urged him to slit Zayn’s throat right then and there, but his body’s condition made that impossible. His leg was all sorts of messed up, and he’d fully exhausted his Aether Core, while Zayn was at nearly full strength.
Zayn approached Axel with his sword and held it to his throat. Axel tried to angle his own sword toward Zayn, but Zayn effortlessly disarmed him and kicked the weapon away.
Without the sword as leverage, Axel helplessly fell to his knees.
Zayn looked down at Axel and asked:
"What is a disaster?"
’Is he dumb? Why is he asking me this, and why now? Just why?!’
Axel raged at Zayn:
"You are!"
Zayn slapped Axel across the face, then screamed:
"What is a disaster?!"
Axel continued to scream as loudly and furiously as his lungs would allow:
"What are you talking about, bastard?! Why are you asking something so childish?! Is knowing the definition of a simple word beyond your pathetic capabilities?! Please make some sense! Please, explain what you are doing!"
Zayn grabbed Axel by the hem of his shirt and shook him. He cried out in a fury:
"I’m not asking for the dictionary definition, dumbass! You must know since you are one! What is a DISASTER?!"
Anger filled Axel, but with no strength, he couldn’t defend himself or fight back. Axel let the bastard hold him like a lifeless doll while Zayn’s words did nothing but confuse and anger him.
"I have no idea what you mean, dirty traitor. No... dirty human being..."
Axel was speaking to both the current and future Zayn, though he knew neither of them.
All he knew was that Zayn was rotten in both the present and future.
Zayn paused for a moment, and tears began to stream down his face as he let out a pained laugh:
"...Hahahahahaha!"
Then he shouted:
"Then why?! Why do I have to kill you?! Why? Why? WHY?! Tell me!"
Zayn grabbed Axel’s shirt and shook him violently as he broke down.
Axel tried to reason with him:
"You don’t. What reason could you have? Just lower your sword... Please."
It didn’t seem like Zayn heard him.
At this point, Zayn appeared completely insane, prattling only to himself.
Zayn suddenly snapped his head around and stared directly at Axel. He dragged Axel closer and said:
"What part about you could possibly threaten the world?!"
"Huh?"
Axel needed to find a way out of this situation, but he had no strength left in his body.
Zayn screamed at the top of his lungs, causing his words to echo throughout the throne room:
"Why the hell did I return to the past?! Gods or whatever you are, if you were going to send me back, why didn’t you let me keep my memories?! Why do I have to do this?! He’s innocent! For what reason will his existence endanger the world?!"
’Wait, what?’
"Wait! What do you mean you returned to the pa..."
Pain shot through Axel’s body. He looked down at the sword Zayn had just thrust into his abdomen, mirroring his death in the vision.
"Why, gods, goddesses, demons, or whatever’s above... Why must I commit this great sin?"
Tears streamed down Zayn’s face as he pulled the sword from Axel’s body.
Zayn continued:
"I’m sorry, Axel. People started calling you a hero, right? Yeah, that’s definitely what you would become if you weren’t one already. I guess that makes me a heinous villain who killed the hero before he even got to shine, doesn’t it?"
Zayn began to plead:
"But you see, Axel, this is all necessary. For the fate of humanity, you, the hero, must die here, and I, the villain, must live. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!"
Tears streamed down the traitor’s face as he lowered Axel’s body to the ground. He quietly said:
"Forgive me."
’Bastard!’
Axel slumped to the floor, losing all motor function. The only abilities he had left were sight and thought.
Even his vision soon faded as blood filled his eyes, turning everything red. Then everything went blank.
’Will I return to the void? I think I remember the void.’
Now, with no sight, he was left with his thoughts.
He tried to speak, but he had no idea whether he actually spoke the words aloud or only thought them.
"S-see... you. In... hell."
’Damn it all...’
’Once again.’
’I’m dying.’
’And with... So much...’
’Regret.’
’Screw you...’
’Zayn...’
’Y...ou’
’Ba...s...’
...
Axel felt himself falling.
Falling, falling, falling.
Then a familiar violet sky came into view.